New Project in Tauranga, New Zealand

We first spoke to these clients over two years ago but in the end we weren’t instructed. They thought the process would be too tricky with us so far away, and went with local architects instead. So we were very glad when they came back to us earlier this year, having not quite managed to get the design to what they were fully satisfied with. We agreed with them to do a limited two-week design study, and came up with two different concepts. The clients fell in love with one, and we’re now instructed to carry on and work it up properly.

The site sits at the top of an escarpment above Tauranga Harbour, on the eastern edge of the Te Papa Peninsula, looking out towards Mount Maunganui. The terrace runs level for a stretch before dropping away steeply through dense vegetation to the water below. The view from the site is fantastic.

The clients wanted a family home that feels calm and permanent rather than a showcase. Somewhere that seems as though it’s always been there. Their life organises around three things: the kitchen, the pool and terrace, and the view. Our job was to make those three feel inevitable rather than arranged. The plan breaks into connected spaces that can also be closed off, so the house works both open and intimate. A kitchen island at the centre of daily life, a lounge that opens straight onto the pool and terrace, a separate media room for the evenings. Then a principal suite, children’s rooms built to grow with them, and a self-contained two-bedroom guest flat for ageing parents or a live-in carer.

We started by working out where the house could best sit on the site. Parts of the slope are unstable, which set firm limits on how close to the edge we can build. It’s an upside-down house: you come into a large, double-height hallway on the lower ground floor, then take a helical staircase up to the living floor on the first floor. The two floors are offset rather than stacked, with the upper floor set back on the site, away from the seafront. That gives us two things. A large sheltered overhang for the entrance and parking below, and a deep terrace directly outside the kitchen and living room above. That’s where the pool is too. Turning the house upside-down like this also lets us capture the best of the view.

The material is in-situ concrete, warmed throughout with timber. We’re really excited about this one, and we hope to break ground next year.